Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Hansard source

I am here representing the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, summing up the debate on the Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Emergency Response Consolidation) Bill 2008. I would comment that, in the contributions that I have listened to this evening, I am very happy with the generally bipartisan attitude that most speakers have taken.

I would particularly like to reassure the member for Flinders, who mentioned Indigenous rangers, that in fact there is a $90 million measure in the May budget for employing 300 additional Indigenous rangers to protect and manage the environment as part of the $2.2 billion Caring for our Country initiative. There has also been a tripling of funding for Indigenous protected areas, investing $50 million over the next five years, also through the Caring for our Country initiative.

I thought I had also better reassure the members for Greenway and Fisher that their concerns are unwarranted when it comes to rolling back protections against R18+ material. In fact, this legislation strengthens protections in those communities. This consolidation bill makes changes to the legislative framework of the Northern Territory emergency response. In particular, it implements the government’s election commitment in relation to the permit system for major communities in the Northern Territory and extends the pornography measure.

Whereas the previous government enacted provisions to abolish the requirement for people to obtain permits before they visited Aboriginal communities, the Rudd government believes that these provisions do not in fact contribute to the emergency response. Those provisions would actually make it easier for drugs and alcohol to enter communities, a view supported by the Northern Territory Police Association. The government believes that Indigenous people, like other Australians, should be able to decide who can enter their land. We made an election commitment to revoke the public access permit changes legislated by the previous government, and this bill gives effect to that commitment.

The power of the minister to authorise people to enter Aboriginal land will also be clarified by this bill. After the bill is passed, the government will, through a ministerial authorisation, ensure that journalists can access communities for the purpose of reporting on events in local communities. We have been liaising with land councils and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance on the conditions which will apply. The government has tabled two further amendments to the permit scheme. Following a suggestion by the minor parties in the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs inquiry into the bill, the government has agreed to make explicit in the legislation that the minister may not authorise entry to a sacred site under the ministerial authorisation power.

The government has also agreed with a request from the Northern Territory government to extend the existing exemption from permit requirements for candidates for federal and Northern Territory Legislative Assembly elections to include candidates for local government elections. This amendment will facilitate the upcoming elections for the new shire arrangements in the Northern Territory.

The 2007 legislation included prohibitions on the possession, control and supply of certain pornographic material in prescribed areas. The Little children are sacred report mentioned a further area of concern expressed by Aboriginal people in this area. This related to R-rated material that is available through pay television subscriptions. This bill now amends the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 to address that concern. A new class licence condition will be established to prevent subscription television narrowcasting service licensees from providing subscribers in a community declared by the Indigenous affairs minister with access to a subscription television narrowcasting service declared by the communications minister. Only services that transmit more than 35 per cent of R18+ program-hours over a seven-day period can be declared for this purpose. Communities cannot have their access to the television service restricted unless they are in prescribed areas under the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 and the Indigenous affairs minister is satisfied, following proper consultation, that it would be appropriate for the service to be restricted. Consistent with the 2007 pornography amendments, this arrangement will include a five-year sunset provision. The government has tabled amendments to the banning of R-rated pay television to make minor workability improvements recommended by the industry and raised by the Senate community affairs committee. The amendments cut red tape by allowing industry to self-declare an R-rated service and improve the record-keeping requirements.

A further measure in the bill will amend the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995 to permit the transportation of prohibited pornographic material through a prescribed area to a destination outside the prescribed area. These amendments ensure greater consistency with the alcohol bans and are intended to allow industry members to transport goods lawfully in the conduct of their business to areas that are not prescribed. An offence for possession or supply would not apply if the person proves that the material was brought into the prescribed area for the sole purpose of transporting it to a place outside the prescribed area.

Consequential amendments are also made to the seizure provisions in the pornography prohibition legislation. These amendments will provide that prohibited material will not be seized if the material is only being transported through a prescribed area. However, if the material is seized, it can be returned to the owner if the material is not prohibited material or is only being transported through the prescribed area.

The last measure in the bill refines the new community stores and licensing regime which is designed to ensure that community stores meet minimum standards and to provide assurance that stores have the capacity to participate in income management. If a community substantially relies on a roadhouse in a remote area for grocery items and drinks, the roadhouse should be able to be part of the scheme applying to community stores. This will enable the roadhouse to be properly treated as a community store in having to meet the new licensing standards. Otherwise, roadhouses will continue not to be regarded as community stores.

Finally, I make some observations about aspects of the 2007 legislation. As has been made clear, notably by the Prime Minister at the beginning of the new parliament, the government is committed to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on life expectancy, educational achievement and employment opportunities. The government is keen to work in partnership with Indigenous communities and the Northern Territory government to tackle the problems of child abuse and improve the prospects of Indigenous children and their families.

We are also committed to evidence based policy. We have commissioned an independent review of the Northern Territory emergency response for completion by the end of September 2008, to determine whether the response is improving education, health and employment outcomes. The existing legislation for the Northern Territory emergency response contains provisions for income management, changes to land and housing arrangements, improving law and order and improving the safety and wellbeing of children and their families. The legislation also contains provisions which deem the measures to be special measures and exclude them from the operation of part II of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.

Given our commitment to maintaining the overall direction of the emergency response until the completion of the review, and to focus on effective implementation, the bill contains some amendments to existing measures which continue to be covered by the operation of the racial discrimination provisions in the legislation for the Northern Territory emergency response. Importantly, the bill contains no new provisions which exclude the operation of the Racial Discrimination Act. The new R18+ measures have been designed as special measures and do not have a provision excluding the operation of part II of the Racial Discrimination Act. We will give further consideration to the racial discrimination provisions in the legislation enacted by the previous government following the independent and transparent review of the Northern Territory emergency response.

The opposition’s decision to oppose the legislation is further evidence of their continuing subjugation to ideology over clear-headed analysis. In contrast, we are committed to evidence based policy which focuses clearly on what works. We are committed to the fundamental objective of the emergency response, which is improving the life chances of residents in remote communities, particularly women and children. This bill is designed to advance those objectives.

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